UGB Chapter 165 Physical Salvation and Starry Sky Patterns
Chapter 165 Physical Salvation and Starry Sky Patterns
Lin Zhen leaned against a tree trunk, clutching the wound on his stomach that had just mostly healed, his breath coming in gasps from the pain. He trembled as he pulled out the encrypted internal communicator of the Sky Surveillance Bureau from his pocket.
The efficiency of the Jiangzhou Astronomical Observatory is frighteningly high.
In less than half an hour, twelve heavy-duty tracked industrial crushers rumbled up Panlong Mountain. The ear-piercing sound of the tracks breaking the deathly silence around the villa.
The project manager leading the team was a bald man in his forties. As soon as he jumped out of the car and saw the hundreds-of-meters-long, pale bone lying across the square, his eyes rolled back and his legs went weak into the mud.
"Commander Lin... Commander Lin."
The bald manager gripped the car door handle tightly, his teeth chattering.
"What the hell is this? Did they dig up dinosaur fossils?"
Lin Zhen walked over and kicked the track, causing a sharp pain in his wound.
"Don't ask questions you shouldn't. This thing is very hard; can the machine you brought even bite through it?"
The bald-headed manager swallowed hard, managing to regain some of his professionalism.
"This is a titanium alloy ore crusher imported from Germany. Let alone bones, even a solid high-carbon steel pillar thrown in will be ground into iron powder in three minutes."
He waved his hand, signaling the two machines to drive over.
A massive robotic arm extended, its two rows of sharp titanium alloy gears biting hard into the edge of the dragon's main vertebra.
Squeak—Bang!
An extremely sharp metallic cracking sound pierced everyone's eardrums.
Sparks shot more than three meters high through the gaps in the gears. The shredder, which was supposed to be able to crush high-carbon steel, broke four half-foot-long titanium alloy teeth on its main shaft, emitted a pungent black smoke, and went out of service.
The entire place was deathly silent. The workers didn't dare to even breathe.
Lu Yuan walked over and reached out to pinch the section of dragon bone from the Integration Stage that even titanium alloy couldn't bite.
There was no fluctuation of true essence. It was purely physical suppression from the Mahayana stage physical body.
Click!
He broke off a piece the size of a washbasin from the seemingly indestructible dragon bone with his bare hands. His five fingers clenched, and his palm made a sickening grinding sound. The bone instantly turned into a pool of fine, pure white bone powder, which fell softly between his fingers.
The bald manager's mouth was slightly agape, and the light and shadow in his eyes flickered violently. The surrounding mechanical roar was completely silenced in that instant.
Lu Yuan dusted off the powder on his hands and looked at the dazed supervisor.
"I'll be in charge of breaking up the large chunks. Your machines will only be responsible for grinding and mixing. Within three hours, mix this bone meal into special cement at a ratio of one to ten, and then pour a new two-meter-thick outer wall around my villa."
The supervisor nodded frantically, his legs spinning. The way he looked at Lu Yuan now was more terrified than he looked at that bone.
Lu Yuan ignored the group's reaction and turned to push open the dilapidated mahogany door of the villa.
The temperature inside the room was ridiculously high.
It was like a steel furnace running at full power. The edges of the expensive cashmere carpet were charred black, and the air was filled with the smell of burning fabric about to spontaneously combust.
Lu Qingxue sat barefoot and cross-legged in the center of the living room.
Her skin had taken on an eerie, flushed red hue. This was the Extreme Flame Dragon Marrow within her body, frantically releasing heat after sensing the deathly aura emanating from the outside world. Her current physical state was like a forcibly locked spiritual energy nuclear reactor. Even the slightest leak of her aura could instantly evaporate the blood of an ordinary person.
"elder brother."
Lu Qingxue bit her lip, and the large beads of sweat on her forehead evaporated as soon as they appeared in the high temperature.
"I feel like there's a fire burning inside me, but there's also a block of ice stuck between my bones, holding it back. It's about to burst."
Lu Yuan walked over and probed her body with his Mahayana divine sense without reservation.
The domineering firepower of the Extreme Flame Dragon Marrow was clashing fiercely with the innate cold energy of her Nine Yin Profound Meridians at her dantian. The two forces, one red and one blue, formed an extremely dangerous energy vortex, constantly tearing at her fragile meridians.
If it were any of the old fogies in the cultivation world, they would absolutely go mad upon seeing this physique. This is a natural cauldron for Yin-Yang dual cultivation; once it erupts, it's enough to destroy all life within a hundred miles.
Lu Yuan extended his index finger and touched Lu Qingxue's brow.
The wisp of pale golden true essence, restored in the deep sea, flowed into his fingertips. The control of the Mahayana stage was displayed to its fullest extent at this moment. The true essence was like a precise scalpel, forcibly cutting into that energy vortex, forcibly stripping away the rampaging cold and fire, and suppressing it into two parallel meridian pathways.
The moment the true essence was channeled into the underlying meridians.
Lu Yuan's back straightened abruptly.
He saw that deep within Lu Qingxue's dantian, the two newly formed ice and fire meridian patterns, under the pressure of true essence, were actually faintly piecing together a fragmented pattern.
The pattern's trajectory, its twists and turns, and even the pauses at each energy node, were completely identical to the star array pattern on the mysterious bronze piece he retrieved from the car accident's remains!
A copper plate with interdimensional array patterns left by my mother. The array patterns naturally present in my younger sister's meridians. A mutated Yin corpse at the bottom of a stagnant, cold pool.
Lu Yuan pulled his hand back and gripped the edge of the sofa tightly.
He has now seen through this mess.
The old man disappeared years ago, his mother was murdered in a car accident, and high-ranking officials from the Astronomical Bureau intervened to block the signal. This is not some old cliché of powerful people murdering for money.
These bastards from the Sirius Starfield are using the bloodline of the Lu family as a living array core for some kind of interstellar coordinate system! Lu Qingxue's Nine Yin Profound Meridian wasn't innate at all; someone planted a cross-dimensional mark on her while she was still in the womb!
"Are you feeling better?"
Lu Yuan forcefully suppressed his surging murderous intent and patted Lu Qingxue's head.
Lu Qingxue let out a long breath. The high temperature in the room instantly dropped, and the carbonized carpet stopped smoking.
She tried clenching her fist. A soft "pop" sound came from the air.
"Brother, I think I've gotten stronger. I almost broke the corner of the coffee table just now."
"That's normal. With your current physical strength, even if all those martial artists outside who have practiced internal energy their whole lives were tied together, they couldn't beat you. But don't use it recklessly; you haven't learned how to control your strength yet."
The deafening sound of machinery stirring came from outside the villa. Special cement mixed with dragon bone powder from the fusion stage was being rapidly poured into shape.
Although the earth veins of Panlong Mountain were drained once, with the release of the East China Sea dragon vein, a second wave of spiritual energy is frantically feeding back to the world.
Lu Yuan closed his eyes directly, and his Mahayana stage divine sense transformed into a vast, all-encompassing net.
Ignoring the warning of the law of severing the connection between heaven and earth, he forcibly imprisoned all the free spiritual energy within a radius of five hundred miles, and smashed it all into the newly built courtyard wall like a ram.
The new Nine Heavens Gathering Spirit Array is no longer a simple tortoise shell. It has become a meat grinder covered in barbs. Any living being that dares to touch this wall will be instantly crushed into blood and gore by the residual pressure and high-pressure spiritual energy of the Nascent Soul stage dragon.
Lin Zhen dragged his half-crippled body in from outside, carrying a black metal box in his hand.
"Mr. Lu. We just received a message from the Technical Section of the Astronomical Bureau."
Lin Zhen carefully placed the box on the coffee table, his breathing becoming thin and fragmented.
"After you smoothed out Zhou Ming's cerebral cortex with your soul-searching technique, the technical department investigated the physical barrier that caused him to cut off the signal to Panlong Mountain. Inside the load-bearing wall of this barrier, they unearthed this object."
Lu Yuan glanced at it.
It was a strangely shaped communicator. There were no buttons, only a screen the size of a fingernail. Printed on the screen was a blood-red scale pattern.
"A transmitter operating on a dedicated frequency band on the dark web."
Lu Yuan leaned back on the sofa.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. collects Boundary Stones, with the Dark Web providing funding and assassins. The highest levels of the Celestial Surveillance Bureau are infiltrated by money, and the Ancient Martial Arts Alliance is willing to act as its lackeys in pursuit of immortality. The resources these people control have long exceeded the limits of secular regimes.
"Not only that."
Lin Zhen swallowed hard, the water sloshing violently in his trembling hands before splashing onto the floor.
"Old Li just sent over top-secret intelligence. That monster beneath the Antarctic glacier... has moved."
"It didn't attack the outer research stations. Instead, it broke through the ice and dived into the deep sea. Its trajectory was straight towards the East China Sea. Based on the speed last detected by the sonar, it will land on the coast of Jiangzhou in seven days at most."
Lu Yuan sneered.
"Without human blood to nourish it, its partially paralyzed skeleton would fall apart before it even reached halfway down the ocean."
Lin Zhen's face was as white as paper.
"That's the problem. Three hours ago, the dark web posted a new mandatory bounty on the black market. They've gathered over three thousand top assassins and awakened mercenaries from around the world, and concentrated them all on a super cruise ship in international waters of the East China Sea."
Lin Zhen clenched his back teeth tightly, a faint taste of blood rising in his mouth.
"They weren't there to carry out assassinations. They were there to be food."
They used three thousand elite warriors, skilled in combat and ruthless, as mobile blood packs, voluntarily feeding them into the mouths of the demonic remnant soul to sustain its energy consumption as it crossed half the ocean.
This method of treating human lives like dry cell batteries is indeed the style ingrained in the bones of those evil cultivators in the Sirius Star Region.
"There's one more thing."
Lin Zhen's voice was kept very low, as if he was afraid of disturbing something.
"The Ancient Martial Arts Alliance previously declared they would publicly execute Ye Qingcheng using a Heavenly Thunder Formation at the Beijing Martial Arts Arena. Now, those four reclusive elders are dead at your hands. But the situation in Beijing... hasn't been resolved."
"Who's hosting?" Lu Yuan asked.
"The head of the Xuanmen Tianji Pavilion, and the highest-ranking executive of the S.H.I.E.L.D. conglomerate in Asia. They brought twelve S-level genetic mutants and forcibly took over the defense of the martial arts arena."
Lin Zhen looked at Lu Yuan's expressionless face and forced himself to continue his report.
"They placed thirteen coffins on the martial arts stage. They announced that if you didn't go to the capital within three days... they would detonate twelve high-yield dirty bombs buried along the East China Sea coast. They would use the lives of millions of civilians to welcome that Antarctic monster."
They used the lives of coastal cities to force Lu Yuan into a trap.
This is no longer a conspiracy. This is a blatant, overt scheme.
They had calculated that Lu Yuan would not allow the ley lines of China to be completely contaminated by the dirty bombs, nor would he allow the demon skeleton that had absorbed the blood and qi of three thousand martial artists to rush into Jiangzhou with a body full of nuclear radiation.
Just then.
The black metal box on the coffee table suddenly emitted a piercing electrical sound.
The screen lit up. The blood-red scale icon began to flash rapidly. A mechanical voice, processed by multiple voice changers and devoid of any emotion, came from the speaker.
"Lu Yuan. Nice to meet you."
Lu Yuan didn't take the box. He just leaned back on the sofa, quietly watching the shimmering scales.
"Spit it out."
The mechanical voice paused for a second, seemingly surprised that this Chinese person's opening remarks were so unconventional.
"You destroyed the core of Abyss One's array. You certainly surprised us. But you only destroyed a water pump; the real dam has breached."
"The vanguard in Antarctica has already set off. The life force of three thousand high-level martial artists is enough to sustain it until it reaches Jiangzhou. The little bit of cement wall you rebuilt won't stop the ancient demons from trampling it."
Lu Yuan picked up his water glass and took a sip.
"You called all this way just to tell me the names of dishes?"
"Let's make a deal."
The mechanical voice completely ignored Lu Yuan's taunts and directly revealed its trump card.
"Give us the copper piece you retrieved from the car accident scene, along with your sister. In exchange, we'll change the coordinates to guide the skeleton around Jiangzhou, directly to the capital. You can continue being your invincible immortal on Panlong Mountain; no one will bother you anymore."
Lu Yuan was amused.
He slammed the water glass down on the coffee table, making a sharp sound.
"You're coming here with a skeleton of a man who's partially paralyzed, threatening me to hand over the person?"
Lu Yuan leaned forward, staring at the screen that had no camera.
"Do you have some fundamental cognitive obstacle regarding the term 'Mahayana'?"
"Lu Yuan! This is not a test! This is an ultimatum!"
The mechanical voice suddenly rose in pitch, exuding an arrogant air of control over life and death.
"Twelve S-class mutants are already in position at the Capital Martial Arts Arena. They have the detonators for the dirty bombs. If you dare to leave Jiangzhou even half a step, the twelve dirty bombs will detonate immediately!"
"If you don't come out, in seven days, the demon skeletons will raze Panlong Mountain to the ground! You can't protect that girl alone!"
Which one do you choose?
This is a dead end.
On their way to the capital, a filthy bomb exploded, causing widespread devastation. The demon skeletons seized the opportunity to absorb the death energy and grow stronger.
Staying in Jiangzhou, he would face an ancient demon that had absorbed the blood and qi of three thousand martial artists in seven days, while also protecting Lu Qingxue, who was on the verge of going berserk.
No matter which choice you make, it's all part of the other party's calculations.
Lu Yuan reached out and picked up the metal box.
"I won't choose either one."
Lu Yuan's fingers gripped the alloy edge of the box. His Mahayana stage true essence flowed from his fingertips, piercing into the communicator's internal chip without reservation.
Following the encrypted quantum network connection, Lu Yuan's vast divine sense, large enough to cover half the Earth, transformed into an invisible dagger and traced it in reverse!
"Since you all like setting up arenas so much."
Lu Yuan's cold voice traveled along the network cable and directly into the core server of the dark web headquarters on the other side of the ocean.
"Wash your necks clean and wait. Before sunrise tomorrow, I will personally go to the capital, twist your heads off one by one, and stuff them into those thirteen coffins."
Click!
The communication box, made of special alloy, was crushed into a lump of scrap metal in Lu Yuan's hands.